#42 Inverted Skyscraper (3)
#42 Inverted Skyscraper (3)
It soared through the open sky, climbing higher. The beast feigned exhaustion, but I knew better than to be fooled by the act.
What lingered in its eyes wasn't fatigue—it was rage. A searing fury directed at me, the one who had laid waste to its domain and stolen every scrap of its prey.
I sensed Baekrok's presence and gave a short nod. I'd already entrusted him with a task, pulling him back alongside Perry.
The beast finally reached the ceiling and snorted, a flash of flame flickering in its breath. Proof it belonged to the dragon species. Still, it didn't lunge straight at me. Instead, it studied me.
'It's unsettled.'
A land predator that had appeared in the paradise of winged creatures. To the imugi, I was an unknown. And worse, I was the one who had already taken one of its eyes.
"―――!"
With a roar that shook the air, the imugi coiled its long tail around a building and crushed it to rubble. It hurled the debris at me. I tracked the incoming fragments, gauging the distance by sight.
'Roughly...'
My calculations done, I shot out my tentacles and whipped around the debris, yanking myself clear just in time. I used the recoil to launch myself at the imugi, but it evaded me as if I were nothing. I hadn't expected to mount it so easily.
'This isn't the end.'
Just as Baekrok had done, I could now create footholds far out in the open. Using Intuition, Perception, and prediction, I read the imugi's next move and built an angled foothold at the exact moment I needed to dodge.
'Using the recoil.'
I pivoted hard around the pillar my tentacles had seized, channeling the momentum toward the foothold. Right before it shattered under the shock, I snapped my trajectory with Elasticity—plunging into the gap between Bicheonmang's gaping jaws. I left a trail of Ghost Flame (C) inside its mouth and slipped out by the far corner of its jaw. With the flame still burning, I lashed out with my tentacles again, caught its fangs, and vaulted higher.
'Got—?!'
I thought I was finally going to land on its back. But the beast twisted and slammed itself into the ceiling. I had no choice but to abandon the mount, forming a foothold just before I plummeted.
'So it's not going to be that easy, huh?'
With stats that high and dragon scales to boot, smashing into the ceiling meant nothing to it. The Volcanic Horned Dragon and the Earth Serpent had taught me the same thing—the concept of impact and damage is completely different for these things.
'Damn it.'
So crashing its back into the ceiling was utterly meaningless. Like slapping a jelly wall.
'...This is why I figured climbing onto its back here would be tough.'
As if to prove the point, the beast shook its head and looked down at me, entirely unharmed. It opened its jaws to their absolute limit. I could see Ghost Flame (C) still spreading inside its mouth, and beyond its throat, a crimson glow growing into a blaze. I shifted direction immediately. I had to get as far from Rotte Tower as possible. I doubted it would destroy its own nest, but Baekrok and Perry were still there—I couldn't gamble on that.
"......!"
The Breath came flying at me. I'd assumed it would be faster than the Lesser Drake's, but reality was far worse than anything I'd imagined. I realized it would hit me before I could even grab anything with my tentacles. I activated Elasticity—not to change direction midair, but to accelerate. The next instant became a blank.
"―――!"
Its Breath wasn't a single burst. It surged endlessly, melting the city, scorching everything in its path. Ghost Flame (C) isn't a weak flame by any standard, yet it didn't stand a chance against that infernal breath.
'More than the firepower itself...'
The sheer output was on a completely different scale. If Ghost Flame (C) was a lazy, drifting breeze, the imugi's breath was a hurricane. When its exhalation finally ended, it whipped its tail against the ceiling, and the shattered asphalt came flying like buckshot. I had to summon a Gust to scatter the onslaught—there was no counting individual fragments at that speed.
"――――――!"
Bicheonmang screamed its dominance, proclaiming its own strength. The imugi. It hadn't become a true dragon, but it already possessed catastrophic power on its own. Stats matching an A-Class. And flight skill that let it rule the open sky. Who could let their guard down against a monster like that?
But Wolf wasn't watching Bicheonmang.
'The rear...'
I stopped myself from looking. I spread my senses outward and only relaxed once I'd confirmed the other two were safe. Perry and Baekrok weren't going to be taken out by a stray Breath fired from that distance. Which meant—
'If there's nothing to worry about—!'
Wolf's eyes began to burn crimson.
***
It began as fury. Then it turned into suspicion and dread.
The intruder looked beatable—should have been beatable. But no attack ever touched it. Suspicion crept in: was the Wolf toying with it? Dread followed: what if the Wolf couldn't be beaten?
Those two feelings, suspicion and dread, slowly began to eat away at it. They grew without limit until they twisted into fear. In the imugi's mind, Wolf was steadily transforming into something monstrous.
***
I'd experienced aerial combat against Hong Yuri before, but never a fight with no ground at all. The past four days had been nothing but devouring time for Wolf—not real combat. Like a winged creature returning to its roost, too exhausted for its wings to matter, it had been a one-sided hunt.
'But.'
Bicheonmang was different. Its flight was a skill manifestation. It had no wings to begin with, and it never tired. It had simply returned to fight me.
I kicked off the empty air, leaped to avoid its tail, and the building collapsed into a cascade of rubble. Fragments poured down like a cliff crumbling. I used them as footholds.
"―――!"
I stuck close using Elasticity. I detonated the Gust swirling at my feet and shot upward. This wasn't just passively cloaking myself in wind—I used it like Elasticity, for instantaneous acceleration. I'd conceived the idea when I acquired Amphibious and created the Vortex. Even at over 200 kilograms, the fierce wind hurled me forward in an instant.
'With this!'
Right before I closed the distance, I fired spines. I couldn't hope to harm its dragon-scale-covered hide—but four days ago, I had taken one of its eyes with exactly this attack. The painful memory forced it to dodge an attack it didn't even need to avoid, and that created an opening. I latched on, driving my tentacles into the gaps between its body segments.
Breath. Dragon Scales. Even the fact that it was no more than an immature lesser dragon. Bicheonmang outclassed me in every respect, but it shared many similarities with the Lesser Drake. And I had experience with that.
'To pierce these scales...'
Evil Devouring. No—Snatch Devour was the only correct answer. The scales where my tentacles touched began to dissolve, sloughing away. The more they melted, the harder the imugi thrashed. But I'd added Adhesion as a property through Change. I wasn't coming off easily.
A massive shadow fell over me as I stubbornly held on. Its tail was sweeping in to strike. I abandoned the tentacles and dropped.
'Now.'
The enormous tail slammed into its own body. The shockwave was neutralized by Gust. Just before I fell away entirely, a tentacle I'd left attached to the tail yanked me back up.
Bicheonmang noticed me dangling too late. It thrashed violently to shake me off. As I was dragged upward by force, I drove my claws into a microscopic gap in its scales. I severed the tentacle connecting me to its tail the next instant.
My claws are part of my body too. As Snatch Devour ate away at the flesh, the gap widened until I had enough space to launch myself upward. This time, the beast didn't ram itself into the ceiling. Instead, it dove.
"......!"
Like the Thunder Hawk, it pierced the wall of air. The pressure slammed into me, and I had to brace for the impact even as I clung on. I clenched my jaw and threw everything into it—claws, fangs, tentacles—biting and tearing at its scales. I held on until, at last, its flight halted.
'Damn...'
This was the moment. The fight would be decided by endurance alone.
'I've been waiting for this.'
Because if I couldn't cling to it, I could never kill it. Taking it down inside the ceiling-bound zone had been hopeless.
'Same for you, I'm sure.'
On a battlefield where neither could easily finish the other, rising into the open sky—where a single mistake became fatal. Wolf let out a howl, and the black flame coalesced into the shape of a ghost.
The jet-black fire charged. Its stride, from tail to head, held no hesitation. Wolf was certain. Certain of victory. All the preparations were complete.
"―――!"
The dragon twisted and wrenched its body. It spun through the air dozens of times, yet it couldn't shake Wolf off. The Adhesion applied to his paws stretched to its limit and held. Just as the massive jaws moved to engulf him, Wolf was finally torn from the imugi's body. Below was an infinite sky and an endless abyss.
Wolf conjured a foothold to brace himself—then a massive storm of magical power shattered it to pieces. The imugi thought the battle was over. Wolf thought, *maybe.* He kicked off something and shot back upward in a heartbeat.
"―――?!"
Bicheonmang reeled. What Wolf had kicked off—it was falling wreckage, shattered fragments. When the imugi raised its head, it glimpsed the shape of a deer.
'You actually read it this far.'
Wolf had foreseen this from the very start. Back then, Baekrok had tried to dissuade him. A reckless, dangerous notion, he'd called it. But Wolf's eyes had blazed, and he'd persuaded him.
'As long as you don't get too far away...'
Baekrok remembered the confidence in those eyes when Wolf declared he could seal the Breath entirely. Wolf hadn't asked much of him. Just to shatter buildings at the right moment and send the rubble falling.
"Unbelievable..."
The imugi had been dancing in Wolf's palm from beginning to end. It was a method that cast aside the consideration of one's own life, but Baekrok could no longer deny it. This had been the right course.
***
Wolf sprang across the falling debris, hurtling toward the imugi. The beast tried to pull further away, but it couldn't shake Wolf so easily. More than anything, the occasional spine flying at it disrupted its flight path.
'I can do this.'
The debris fell at perfectly timed intervals, allowing aerial combat without spending magic. Baekrok's speed, bolstered by Shrink Ground, exceeded even Wolf's. Wolf's predictions had surpassed Baekrok's own understanding, but there was no better ally to synchronize with him than Baekrok, who could move one step ahead even faster than Wolf could.
'Now...!'
Drawing on every skill he had, Wolf seized the imugi's scales with his tentacles. The tightening spines burrowed into the gaps and pulled Wolf closer. The black flames still blazed across the imugi, devouring it.
Once again, the magical storm began to whip around. A threat of falling—though that wasn't the real danger. The storm alone couldn't throw Wolf off. Even when he had plummeted before, the magical storm hadn't managed to push him away. It had only destroyed his foothold. This time was no different. Gust and black flame held back the storm, and the power of Great Magic Power punched through by sheer force.
'I've made it up.'
Wolf mounted the imugi's back and spawned a legion of tentacles and shadows. Roaring flame, lashing tentacles, and seething shadow. The end was closing in.
***
While Wolf fought Bicheonmang in the inverted city—
"Finally...!"
The thick iron door that had been firmly shut slowly began to open. The objective: break through to Area 2. Beyond the clans that had initially volunteered, a massive crowd had gathered, waiting with desperate longing for Neverland to open.
"It's opening...!"
Eyes full of anxiety and anticipation fixed on the gate. Before long, as the door swung wide, space itself began to warp—and at last, the dimensional rift yawned open.
"Current time, 06:11. From this moment!"
The Vanguard Captain of the Raid Force, Kang Tae-ho, raised his voice.
"The Neverland Raid commences—!"